An ontological approach to represent knowledge in territorial planning science

Abstract

Territorial planning science pertains to the governance of land transformations. Therefore it concerns several matters and heterogeneous subjects that use knowledge as a basis. Formal methodologies and techniques of knowledge representation are fundamental tools for the governance of land transformations and for sharing information among involved subjects. We propose and implement an ontology-based model of knowledge in the framework of landscape planning, with a particular emphasis on cultural landscape, to resolve conceptual misunderstandings and semantic ambiguities, and to provide a precise and accurate description of the current state of our knowledge.